Summer Fun!

Okay, because I'm a super dork I've come up with a schedule for our summer. Its nothing too binding or anything but the boys (and I) like to know whats coming up each day. 

Tuesday is our library day. We got the boys signed up for the summer reading program the other day and they are both so excited. For every eight books they read, they get to choose a prize. The theme this summer is 100 Years of Arizona so there are also lots of desert related activities going on.

The boys weren't so much into cooperating for pictures.

They are also holding the wrong sheets. 

Monday and Wednesday afternoons we have swimming lessons and Monday and Wednesday mornings is our "summer school." I'm doing some fun "school" stuff with the boys this summer. Its mostly for me to itch my teacher itch but also because I don't want Rowan to get out of practice with his letters and sounds. He is mostly excited to learn how to do addition. The kid is super duper math minded. Cruz is going to be working with color boxes and shapes.

We haven't been using the gate in Cruz's room at night since he hasn't attempted to get out of bed.... until recently, that is. It was about 10:30 one night. The kids were asleep, Roger was outside, I was in another room and when I came out into the family room I found Cruz asleep on the couch with his monkey and water cup. I have no clue when he came out or how long he'd been there. :)

Thursday is our movie day! The theaters near out house have a program where they show one older kids movie a week all summer 10 movies total). A ticket for all ten movies only costs $7 AND 3 and under are free. Since neither of kids have ever been to a movie before I thought this would be fun activity in the air conditioning (yes, please!). We saw Happy Feet Two this morning and the boys did so well. Even Cruz sat through most of the movie.... I'm sure the popcorn helped. :)

Our afternoons are filled with water activities and playdates! We just enjoyed a fun visit with Grammy. My mom is amazing. She helped me get so much done, played endlessly with the boys AND cooked and froze a bunch of dinners for me. I seriously hope I grow up to be just like her. :) We also have a fun almost 2 week trip to Illinois/Wisconsin planned for June and Rowan's birthday in July. I have a feeling, summer is going to fly!

Last Day

 Sweet Rowan has grown so much this year. On the left is his first day of school picture and on the right is today. The shorts he is wearing on the last day of school picture are a whole size bigger than the ones he started with. He is 2 inches taller, 3 pounds heavier and looks like he's grown into his head a bit more. :) Rowan is super smart. He is amazing at patterning and sequencing and he has an amazing memory. Rowan has learned all of his letter sounds, tons of fun songs and rhymes and he's worked very hard on getting along with others and waiting his turn. 

Rowan's favorite thing he learned this year was how to share. He also learned that Jesus loves him no matter what and that we should love each other.

Rowan got to celebrate his birthday with his class today. He brought donut holes for a treat. 

We are so thankful for our school. What a wonderful year! I am looking forward to a fun summer with the boys. We have lots of things planned! :)

End of the Year Party

Rowan's last day of 3 Year Preschool is on Thursday. I can hardly believe it! Today his class celebrated the end of the year with a water party out on the playground! I enjoyed being his class's "room mom" this year along with another mom but I think I'm going to take next year off. :)

The kids used water squirters to "shoot" bowling pins off of the balance beam.

The kids took this very seriously. :)

There were water balloons and bubbles....

and popsicles with friends!

Rowan's sweet teacher has been such a blessing to him this year. She was exactly who he needed and he's grown so much because of her. We will miss her so much.

Fun in the Sun!

My Boys

I adore being the mom to little boys. They are so different than little girls, obviously, and its such an adventure to be around them after growing up with only a sister. 

These boys love to jump off of anything. The higher the better. They pretend to burp and say excuse me at random times through out the day. They love to get dirty. They play cars for hours and could never have enough of them. Climbing up slides is way more fun than going down. The water in the pool is never too cold, even without any clothes on. They never pass up an opportunity to wrestle with each other... or anyone.

These boys also adore each other. Hugs, kisses and "I love you's" grace their lips multiple times a day. There is always time for a smooch for mama, or a kiss on the tummy for their baby sister. They are quick to say "sorry" and quick to forgive. They love to belt out praise songs and quote their memory verses. They enjoy wearing matching clothes and are each other's best playmates.

No doubt, I'm super excited to have a baby girl but had she been I boy, I would have been genuinely thrilled. These little boys are the absolute best, most beautiful little people. I am so thankful to be their mom!

Our Little Sunshine

Cruz: 2 years, 1 month

Cruz loves sports. He's so fast and has amazing coordination. He loves cheering Rowan on at soccer games and getting to kick the ball around with Daddy. Cruz wants to be where the big kids are. He thinks he's at least four or five years old. He loves to follow Rowan and his friends around, do what they do and try to make them laugh.


Our sweet Cruz is full of sillies all the time. He can make Rowan laugh like crazy. Cruz is an amazing share-er and is very good at being flexible when it comes to which toys he plays with. He will very quickly turn a toy over to Rowan or another friend if they ask.


This face is sooo Cruz right now because he talks non stop. Rowan can understand him perfectly, which is so sweet. His words are getting clearer and he uses sentences when he speaks. He knows his colors except he mixes up red and green. He can count to ten and can spell his name. Sweet Cruz also loves to sing. At bedtime he rubs my face or my tummy while I sing him Jesus Loves Me or You Are My Sunshine.


Cruz is so loving and is king of hugs and kisses. He'll grab your face and plant a big wet smooch on you for no reason at all. He's also very free in telling people that he loves them.


Cruz also has a very stubborn side. He can throw a tantrum with the best of them and definitely has a mind of his own.




Cruz loves to kiss my tummy and say, "I love you, Co-wa." Its precious. He's getting more excited about Baby Sister every day. He and Rowan love to go into her room and look through her clothes.


Potty training is next on this little man's agenda. He wants to be a "big boy like Rowy!" I have to muster up some extra energy to tackle this though. :)

Introducing...

I've always wanted to do an elective 3D/4D ultrasound but with Rowan and Cruz just didn't feel like spending the out of pocket money. Since this little girl is our last little one I wanted to make sure I didn't have any regrets so we bit the bullet! Plus, I wanted to make sure she was still a girl, which she is. The ultrasound experience was so cool and I felt like we got a glimpse into what she's up to inside!

In this shot you can see her right hand over her face and her left leg straight in the air.

Sister has her mouth wide open!

Here's one of her profile shots. She had some of the umbilical cord in front of her face at this point. She still weighs under a pound so she is missing lots of cute fat!

Introducing.... Miss Cora Grace Baum

We are going to go back around 32 weeks when Cora is good and chubby and hopefully get some good shots and maybe see if she looks like either one of her brothers. Right now the only things that look familiar are her chin and head. They looked a lot like Cruz's so we'll see! :)

Have a great weekend!

Halfway through May!

We are halfway through May and loving the summer weather here in AZ. We've been swimming and splashing the days away now that we're all well. We've also consumed 5 tubs of strawberries in as many days since they were on sale for $1.28 a carton! I love summer fruit prices too. :)

The boys are still talking non stop about Disney World. They had the time of their lives! They are super little travelers especially thanks to all the technology that they had available on the plane. 

I *think* we have come to an agreement on Baby Sister's name. Interestingly, it starts with a C like her brother's. We will hopefully share it at the end of the week.

Happy Monday!

Happy Mother's Day!

I had an absolutely wonderful Mother's Day. It all started out with the boys sleeping in until 8:00! Rowan is still fighting a cold so I took Cruz to church and enjoyed the service very much. Roger and Cruz went swimming at the pool and Rowan and I ran some errands. Dinner at Outback and my favorite frozen yogurt rounded out the day. The boys were sweet and full of kisses. 

They picked out a musical Mickey Mouse (of course) card for me along with some new perfume which Rowan squirted on me before we left. Yesterday morning Rog took the kids out shopping for my gift. When they got home I kissed Cruz's head and was totally able to guess the gift they got me, haha. His head smelled like every women's perfume under the sun since they'd sampled them all. 

Roger and I are blessed with the absolute best moms as well. My mom is the most selfless person I know and my best friend. I am so excited to have a daughter of my own to enjoy that relationship with. My mother in law is so supportive, sweet and an amazing prayer warrior. We know she's always praying for us. 

Motherhood is such a blessing and I thank God with all my heart that he's allowed me the privilege of raising Rowan, Cruz and their baby sister.

9 on the 9th

Nine facts for May 9th.....

1. Cruz does not eat. Its extremely frustrating but absolutely nothing I do will MAKE him eat. It wouldn't bother me except he's only in the 16th percentile for weight anyway. I know he'll eat when he's hungry. Whose kid is he anyway? I love to eat. 

2. Both boys just finished getting over the flu and ear infections. We were stuck in the house for a week and it was torture... seriously. I'm so glad everyone is finally better and we are out and about again.

3. We visited a Puma outlet store in Florida where we found these ORANGE puma shoes. Not only were they orange but the puma lights up. We knew we had to get them for Cruz and he was so excited to put them on today. We figured he deserved something special seeing as he wears a lot of hand me downs.

4. Preschool is drawing to a close for the year. Rowan's teacher assigned each child with a summer birthday their own special day to bring treats and celebrate their birthday with the class. She is such a wonderful teacher. We will miss her.

5. Our new car driving game is coming up with patterns. I give Rowan a pattern like: banana, banana, apple and he tells me what's coming next. He's mastered "aba" patterns, "aaba" patterns and "abba" patterns. I've got to brush up on my math to come up with some more tricky ones. :)

6. Cooper dog is still hanging in there. He is so sweet with the boys and often times they'll stop by where he's laying through out the day and give him a kiss on the head.

7. Here is our baby girl! I know there are some skeptical folks out there but if you look to the left of the word "Girl" you can clearly see three white lines which are her girly parts.  

8. Sister's ultrasound looks nothing like Rowan's messed up one at around this time.

9. The boys are so excited to have a baby sister. Rowan thinks we should name her Daisy or Minnie. Cruz thinks her name should be Chunky or Milk. Roger and I have yet to agree. We'll keep you posted.

Baby #3 is....

-healthy

-adorable

-and a......

Florida #3: Last One

This post documents our second day at Magic Kingdom and a couple photos from Tuesday, the day we left. We are so thankful to my mom and dad for taking us on this trip. It was so fun to watch the boys' faces as they took it all in and it was even more fun to have mom and dad experience it with us.

Rowan was so excited to meet Daisy. He got kind of shy around her. She's his favorite character.

Rowan loves Minnie as well. I thought that if there was any character Cruz might be excited about it would be Mickey but he was still pretty scared.

I was so proud of Rowan for going on Splash Mountain. He was a bit scared but afterwards he said that it was so fun. Grammy and Daddy kept him from getting too wet.

I changed him into a swimsuit and the tshirt he'd worn the day before for the ride. I knew he'd be whining about sitting in wet clothes otherwise. 

Cruz was asleep in the stroller at this point so after photographing Rowan, Dadddy and Grammy on Splash Mountain, we went and got in line to meet Pooh and Tigger.

Waiting for Pooh and Tigger!

I rode the People Mover with Rowan and Cruz while Mom and Rog went on Space Mountain. 

Rowan liked Buzz because he signed his autograph book with a stamp.

Sweet boys and their ears. Rowan brought his Goofy ears to school to share on Thursday.

Grampy stayed behind at the hotel during the day to get some work done, etc. He did join us as we went back at night. It was great, we re rode about six rides with virtually no wait and didn't get back to our room until after 10.

Before heading to the airport on Tuesday we spent some more time down at the pool and doing some shopping. Cruz was super tired from our late night so he stayed in the room and snoozed and Grampy sweetly agreed to stay with him.

At the aiport! So sad to say good bye to Disney World and Grammy and Grampy.

Rowan's favorite rides were the Haunted Mansion and Peter Pan. Cruz echoed the same sentiments when I asked. They both drank about 4 frozen lemonades. Rowan feels like he needs to go back really soon because we never did get Donald Duck or Goofy's autographs. :)